Merry Christmas Season

December shaped up to be a fun filled and crazy month. We were very busy preparing for Christmas and our upcoming move. We bid on 8 homes and visited neighborhoods several times to try and find just the right place. Everything has slowed down in the real estate game during the holidays, so we were not able to make a lot of headway. Tanner had a wonderful program at his preschool for Christmas. He didn't like being on the stage so he did his part from the teacher's lap. He visited with Santa and we ate treats. The school did the most wonderful book exchange. Each of the kids brought a favorite book all wrapped up and then Santa did the exchanging so each of the kids was able to open a gift from eachother/Santa. Tanner had a great time and he loves his teacher Miss Heather.
Darryl pounded out a lot of work between Sacramento, San Jose, and Oakland. We hardly saw him until Dec. 19th when we took a trip to San Francisco to see Alcatraz at night. We met up with one of Darryl's old college friends and her family. They are currently at DLI in Monterrey-He's in the Marine Corp soon to be stationed in Taiwan. Our 2 families had a lot in common including very busy 4 year olds. Tanner had a great time with their daughter. They ran everywhere together, held hands, climbed on everything and generally had a blast exploring alcatraz island. Night time on the island is creepy and strange. It is very cool, but not very kid friendly. We did more child wrestling, baby feeding and potty breaks than I would like to remember. FYI if you go to Alcatraz with kids...go during the day and keep it short.
On Monday Dec. 21st we hit the road for a 2 week travel extravaganza! We visited Idaho and Utah, saw the family, played in the snow and generally had a wonderful time. Here is the summary.
In route to Idaho there was a snow storm in the Sierra Nevada mountains. We had chains with us but luckily made it through Donner pass before the chain requirement. On our first stop in Nevada for some gas we were shocked by the ice cold conditions. Just a reminder as to why we love living in the bay area. We drove to Winnemucca and stayed at the Holiday Inn for the night. Tanner was determined to go swimming, so as soon as we put our bags down Tanner was in his swimming suit headed to the pool. Ironically the pool was only 60 degrees because the heater wasn't working properly. That didn't stop Tanner. He jumped right in and played with a couple of boys that were there. Every so often he would go warm up in the hot tub then it was back to flipping off the side of the pool. He's a fish. It was great for him to burn off some energy. We made it to Idaho by mid afternoon the next day. We enjoyed several days in Blackfoot eating, playing games, watching movies and generally enjoying time with the family. There are 10 grandkids in the W & K Seely family. Everyone was able to get together on Christmas day and play for 3 days. It was a bit of a circus during the day, then when all the kids were finally in bed the adults stayed up late playing board games. Darryl brought out his best Carcassone skills and I won some and lost some in Ticket to Ride.
Darryl and I had a lot of fun visiting with Darryl's friends from High School and their families. Everyone came over one evening and we munched on delicious goodies, looked at old photos and let the munchkins play and get to know eachother.
This year we celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary and it's the first time we have actually celebrated on the day. We went to Chili's for dinner then out to see the movie "Blind Side". It was so nice to spend time just the 2 of us.
Tanner's 4th birthday was the next big event. We went to Farmington, Utah for the birthday party with the Hartley cousins. We drove down in a snow storm that slowed things down a bit. It took awhile for the family to gather in the poor weather conditions. Originally we had planned to take the kids to a bounce house place, but opted out due to my lack of enthusiasm for going anywhere in the snow :) Instead we stayed home and played with balloons, ate donuts off a string, opened presents, had pizza, watched movies and ate cake. Tanner just loved having all of the people around. He was so excited to tell everyone he is 4. Recently he told me that because he's 4 now he should be able to drive. I told him that when he can reach the pedals on the car we would talk about when he can drive.
After so many big events back to back, we spent the rest of the vacation in low gear. We visited our rental properties and checked in on some friends. We took the boys sledding and Tanner found a little sled just his size. He commandeered it from his cousin then found his own area to sled. He even pulled Parker up the hill on it one time. Parker loved sledding and we stayed until we were semi-frozen.
We celebrated New Years with my parents. We watched a movie then the countdown in New York on TV then went to bed. It's always so nice to have enough down time to spend visiting. We took it easy on New Years Day and prepped for the long haul home. We made it back to Fremont in 1 day and luckily had good weather the whole way.
It's good to be home...now for the move. More to come on that subject soon.